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San Francisco will loosen its mask mandate on some interior spaces on October 15, and the county and seven of its neighbors will primarily remove local warrants once they reach low rates of COVID cases and hospitalizations and at least 80% of the total population is fully immunized, according to a set of criteria released by health workers Thursday morning.
The eight Bay Area counties with indoor mask mandates currently in place must achieve moderate transmission levels as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and low hospitalization rates as defined by the officer local health. In counties that have not reached 80% of the vaccinated population, prescriptions can be lifted three weeks after children aged 5 to 11 have access to vaccines.
San Francisco will partially lift its mask mandate one week from Friday, assuming local COVID cases and hospitalizations remain stable or decline over the next week. At that time, people can stop wearing masks in indoor spaces requiring proof of vaccination – including gyms, offices, and places that host small gatherings – as long as no child under the age of 12. is present and other ventilation and safety measures are in place.
Piper Lind wears a mask and decorated costume while welcoming masked customers to Cliff’s Variety on Castro Street in San Francisco on Wednesday.
Jessica Christian / The ChronicleThe criteria announced Thursday apply to counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Sonoma, all of which reinstated interior mask warrants in August amid the surge. of the delta. Solano County does not have a local mandate in place.
The state mandate that requires masking in schools and health facilities remains in place indefinitely. Unvaccinated people should continue to wear masks in virtually all indoor public places, according to state rules.
“I am delighted that we have once again come to a place where we can start to relax mask requirements, which is a direct result of the fact that we have one of the highest vaccination rates in the country,” our cases have declined and our residents have done their part to keep them and those around them safe, ”San Francisco Mayor London Breed said in a statement.
Bay Area health officials had come under increasing pressure to relax local mask mandates in recent weeks, as cases began to decline after the summer outbreak. Statewide, warrants were lifted on June 15 when California reopened its economy.
None of the Bay Area counties are currently meeting the criteria they have set for mask lifting mandates. All have “significant” or “high” local transmission levels as defined by the CDC. But case rates and hospitalizations have declined dramatically since the peak of the delta surge.
“I think now is the time to bring the mask’s mandate to life using a phased approach,” said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, infectious disease expert at UCSF, before the announcement. “That doesn’t mean we have a masked campfire on Ocean Beach. I think what people want are steps to take to see a way from where we are now. “
When Bay Area counties, excluding Solano, made masking mandatory in all indoor public places, regardless of immunization status in early August, health workers told the public that it was a “temporary” measure. The aim was to stem the rapid rise in cases and hospitalizations linked to the highly transmissible delta variant of the virus.
But previously, health services had not announced clear benchmarks for phasing out new and reinstated COVID protocols.
“The purpose of the criteria is to ensure that the conditions are in place for us to safely lift the restrictions,” Marin County health worker Dr. Matt Willis said in a statement. “The mask requirement played an important role in the takeover of Wave Four. Yet our greatest asset is vaccination. High vaccination rates will allow us to continue to safely relax restrictions while providing better protection for our community. “
Aidin Vaziri and Erin Allday are the editors of the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected] [email protected]
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